How my photo made the BBC news

Last Friday one of my photos wound up on the BBC website and although the subject matter was a potential tragedy for those affected, I’m still very proud to see my work on the BBC news website.

To be honest the biggest surprise was just how many people noticed the small “by line” on the photo and got in contact. I also got plenty of questions about how my photo ended up being used, so here are some answers…

Was it commissioned
Not this time. Following weeks of wet weather we had one day of rain too many and the small stream that flows through the village in which I live, decided to flood in a way that I’ve never seen. I snapped a few photos just as record.

So how did it end up on the BBC website?
I was supposed to be travelling to London but trains were all cancelled and the roads blocked, so I was reading the Local BBC twitter feed to find out what was running. By chance a new tweet pop up asking for any photos of the flooding and I thought… why not. The local BBC retweeted my photo and a few minutes later I was contacted by a lady from the BBC website asking if they can use my photo.

Did you get paid?
In this case I didn’t ask to be paid and to be honest payment was the last thing on my mind.

Do you usually work for free?
No I don’t. Had I been commissioned to photograph or video the flooding then it would be another matter but this was simply me sharing a piece of the history of Copthorne.

Would you do it again?
Absolutely I would.

Did the BBC alter your photo?
My original photo is below. It’s a multi image panorama made up of 7 or 8 photos and cover a field of view that’s just under 180 degrees. I sent the BBC a high res version with permission that they could crop it as required and that’s exactly what they did.

So how bad was the damage?
It looked worse then it was, no one was injured and although the road and a few gardens were flooded, the houses were mostly fine. Some damage was self inflicted when a couple of drivers decided to brave the flooded road. A big mistake!

Did you get flooded ?
No we were just fine.

Gavin Hoey

10 Comments

Really cool that you could contribute the best way you know how to an important BBC article. The BBC are quite generous with using viewer’s photographs on articles these days which is nice, a few months ago a snap my brother took of a vehicle incident in London was used on an article too!

Congratulations on making the BBC website. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your videos and work and it’s nice to see that the BBC recognizes quality when they see it. I see you’re going to be in NYC in February. I can’t make it but I hope Adorama makes the stream available.

Congratulations Gavin! Even with the huge following you have that regularly view your images, I’m not at all surprised that getting an image picked up by the BBC is something you are proud of. Out of the 16,000+ shutter releases on my camera at the moment, I am probably most proud of 1 particular image that similarly got picked up by the ABC News website here in Sydney a few years ago, and another that was spotted by Nat Geo just last week – who have asked to use it in a children’s book (woohoo – I’m gonna be published!!)
Well done on the BBC photo, glad you didn’t get flooded out, and keep up the good work – I’m so glad I found your website and videos, and “pressed the subscribe button”. I so look forward to notifications of your new videos.
All the best from Sydney, Grum.